King’s College London has won two of 13 public health research partnerships between universities and Public Health England and will share funding worth £47.5 million for health protection research.
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) launched a competition to designate and fund new Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs) that will act as centres of excellence in multi-disciplinary health protection research in England. HPRUs will be partnerships between universities and Public Health England (PHE) in a range of priority areas. PHE was established in April 2013 and incorporates the responsibilities of the Health Protection Agency. Funded by the Department of Health (DH) the successful applications were announced today.
Contracts for the new NIHR HPRUs will run for five years from 1 April 2014. Funding for each Unit will be held by a university in partnership with Public Health England (PHE) to enable collaboration between world class research in academia and PHE.
Applications were assessed by an international panel. Thirteen successful applications have been offered funding to form Units across 12 public health priority areas, ranging from immunisation to radiation hazards.
King’s was successful in the following priority areas:
- Impact of Environmental Hazards (with Imperial College London Health) led by Professor Frank Kelly
- Emergency Preparedness and Response (with Newcastle University and University of East Anglia) lead by Professor Sir Simon Wessely
Sir Simon said: ‘We are delighted that this enables us to continue our existing highly successful relationship with Public Health England and now welcome our new partners Newcastle University and the University of East Anglia. This is a very exciting and fast developing area of public importance.’
Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies said: ‘These partnerships will bring together research from academia and Public Health England to ensure world class health protection research in England. By focusing on research across a wide range of public health areas, the units will take new scientific discoveries from the lab to benefits for patients and the public. I believe they will have a significant impact on the health of the population.’
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